<p>Things have been quiet over the last couple of weeks here on the VE blog and that can only mean one thing - a new release is due soon! It seems that just before each release things get so busy that i don't have time to blog and this time around was no exception. the fruits are some pretty nice new features in Live maps though. And fortunately during my quiet period my VE colleagues have been keeping you up to date - Hanne has <a href="http://johanneskebeck.spaces.live.com/" target="_blank">been going ballistic</a> with developer tips and tutorials, Pendleton has featured great <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/virtualearth/" target="_blank">customer applications and conference coverage</a>, there's a new blog focused on <a href="http://virtualearth4gov.spaces.live.com/" target="_blank">VE3D/Virtual Worlds</a>, and <a href="http://virtualearth4gov.spaces.live.com/" target="_blank">public sector blog</a> is as active as always. Here is some of the stuff I would have written about if I had a normal life the past couple weeks - <p><a href="http://blog.fortiusone.com/2008/04/09/map-creation-apps-google-vs-microsoft-vs-yahoo/" target="_blank"><strong>Brief History of Web based Map Creation</strong></a> - Sean Gorman of FortiusOne put together this history of web based map creation tools from Google, yahoo, and Microsoft. Since this is the feature area I work on on Live maps this definitely caught my attention. Sean does a good job of hitting the highlights of each offering and keeping the article focused. I found one important inaccuracy related to MapCruncher though. While speaking of yahoo's MapMixer Sean said - <blockquote> <p>Interestingly, in concept, it is quite similar to Microsoft’s <a href="http://dev.live.com/virtualearth/mapcruncher/">MapCruncher</a>, although it is a download and supports a wider variety of raster based formats that must already be georeferenced.</blockquote> <p>The source images you use in Mapcruncher DON'T need to be georeferenced at all! that is Cruncher's main claim to fame - you interactively provide reference points on your map and virtual earth to do the registration. Its a fun and easy process and the core of what makes MapCruncher as powerful as it is. I'll have some big MapCruncher news later today so check back in. <p><strong><a href="http://www.idvsolutions.com/products_overview.aspx" target="_blank">IDV's Visual Fusion for Sharepoint</a></strong> - <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/default.mspx" target="_blank">Sharepoint Server</a> is on its way to becoming a billion dollar software application (which boggles my mind) and IDV provide a great set of tools for spatially enabling your Sharepoint applications. Fusion has a great deal of functionality beyond mapping of course, but they provide a lot of <a href="http://enterpriseready.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!EA197300488A9B26!262.entry" target="_blank">mapping/GIS integration ideas on their blog</a>. <p><a href="http://maps.live.com/?v=2&style=h&cid=49547F152EA845E5!387&encType=1" target="_blank"><strong>The Masters Course in Birds Eye</strong></a> - Golf nerds focused on the Masters in Augusta this week can enjoy detailed birds eye coverage of the course including the infamous <a href="http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=pkg72z84y7xk&style=o&lvl=1&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=13800525&explore=sst.0&encType=1" target="_blank">Amen Corner</a>. <p><a href="http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=pkg6rv84y7yk&style=o&lvl=2&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=13800525&explore=sst.0&encType=1" target="_blank"><img style="border-right:0px;border-top:0px;border-left:0px;border-bottom:0px" height=462 alt=image src="http://byfiles.storage.msn.com/y1pTcqBXnZTBA-5PnRygGpfgYuYabMZ9Huz7xiBbv9LYUUnFSLh5N9cMmLC4BB0A jecYWL9psTol4E?PARTNER=WRITER" width=600 border=0></a> <div style="padding-right:0px;display:inline;padding-left:0px;padding-bottom:0px;margin:0px;padding-top:0px">Technorati tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/MapCruncher" rel=tag>MapCruncher</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/IGV" rel=tag>IGV</a></div><img src="http://c.services.spaces.live.com/CollectionWebService/c.gif?cid=3151506992847969176&page=RSS%3a+Catching+up+on+VE+news&referrer=" width="1px" height="1px" border="0" alt=""><img style="position:absolute" alt="" width="0px" height="0px" src="http://c.live.com/c.gif?NC=31263&NA=1149&PI=73329&RF=&DI=3919&PS=85545&TP=virtualearth.spaces.live.com&GT1=virtualearth">

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